Pommes de terre fondantes, also referred to as melting potatoes, are thick potato rounds handled like meat: seared in oil or animal fats, basted with butter, after which braised within the oven. The result’s a facet dish with deeply caramelized surfaces, custard-like interiors, and a shiny pan sauce.
As the times develop shorter and the crunch of leaves marks every step, my cooking shifts from fast and recent to sluggish and comfortable. Hearty potatoes, particularly melting potatoes—aka pommes de terre fondantes in case you’re feeling fancy—rapidly enter my dinner rotation.
The dish consists of thick potato rounds seared till golden, then braised in herb-infused hen broth and butter till their facilities change into custardy and the sauce is shiny. Despite their latest web fame, melting potatoes are nothing new; they’re rooted in a basic French approach and have lengthy been a staple on French dinner tables. Former Serious Eats senior culinary editor Sasha’s pommes de terre fondant recipe is my go-to as a result of it is easy, elegant, endlessly riffable, and spectacular sufficient for any festive event.
After numerous batches, I’ve realized it is the tenderness of the potatoes and the buttery richness that make them outrageously scrumptious—however one other factor I like about melting potatoes is how simple it’s to make the dish your individual by riffing on the bottom recipe. Customizable with completely different shares, fat, and toppings, they’re proof that French cooking might be each basic and weeknight-friendly.
You can change up the herbs, swap out garlic for onions or different alliums, or add toppings, akin to gooey cheese, like we do in our recipe for French onion melting potatoes. To make the dish much more scrumptious, Sasha’s recipe requires browning the potatoes in rendered animal fats. “Duck fats, schmaltz, and beef fats are all nice choices that’ll lend a wealthy depth of taste to the potatoes,” he writes. “If you don’t have fats already rendered, however plan on serving this facet with one thing like a steak or a roast; you’ll be able to render trimmings or do an preliminary sear on the roast’s fats cap and produce sufficient fats for browning the potatoes, get them within the oven, after which flip your consideration again to the meat.”
Serious Eats / Brittney Cottrell, Food Stylist: Tricia Stuedeman, Prop Stylist: Keoshia McGhee
Use Good-Quality Stock
I prefer to customise the inventory as properly—as a result of what actually makes these potatoes particular is how the liquid reduces right into a sauce that seeps into each chunk, deeply flavoring the potatoes and making them meltingly creamy inside.
Open my freezer and you will find what seems like an proof locker of bones and vegetable odds and ends—meticulously bagged, labeled, and ready for the stockpot. That assortment fuels my melting potatoes. Chicken inventory is the basic alternative, however I typically differ it relying on the meal or the dietary restrictions or preferences of my visitors: beef inventory with steaks, pork inventory with pork chops, and I’ve even used shellfish inventory for seafood dinners. No matter the flavour, beginning with a wealthy and flavorful inventory makes all of the distinction.
How Gelatin Turns Store-Bought Stock Into Liquid Gold
Most store-bought broths and shares lack the collagen that offers home made inventory its physique, which is why they style skinny and watery. If you do not have inventory that units right into a jiggly gel when chilled, fortifying your inventory with gelatin is important. Blooming powdered gelatin in store-bought broth provides it much-needed richness so the braising liquid does not simply boil away, however thickens right into a silky sauce that is thick sufficient to coat the again of a spoon. Few different melting potato recipes use this method, and it is one of many issues that units Sasha’s aside.
Vicky Wasik
For the Best Potatoes, Cook Them Like Meat
Treat these melting potatoes like meat from begin to end: Brown them properly, baste them like a steak, and braise them till they’re meltingly tender. The result’s a dramatic transformation—burnished potatoes with buttery, melt-in-your-mouth facilities. Melting potatoes shine on each a weeknight and a vacation desk, a scrumptious reminder that French cooking doesn’t need to be intimidating.
